Sixth annual Long Island Water Quality Challenge prods students to brainstorm ways to reduce nitrogen in local waters

Juniors at West Hempstead Secondary School created a rain garden on school grounds in May as a way to mitigate against flooding in an area where water pooled for days after heavy rains. 

"The students were very much hands on," said Joe Cangemi, the school district's STEM director. "The idea came from them. They showed me the blue prints. We had a teacher helped guide them. They dug out the area and planted the plants. They monitored when it rained to see it was actually working and they saw very good results."

Principal Joe Pumo added that the project captures the water runoff and the plants contained within the rain garden help to reduce nitrogen pollution.

The West Hempstead students' design efforts won the school a $2,500 grant last April — one of five schools to receive the challenge grants this year — from the annual Long Island Water Quality Challenge.

And now students in the school are in the process of developing ideas about another project they hope to enter in the 2025 challenge, Cangemi said.

The Long Island Regional Planning Council, in conjunction with the Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan, a state effort to reduce nitrogen in waterways, has announced its sixth annual Long Island Water Quality Challenge. It invites middle- and high school students to create "Green Infrastructure" projects on school grounds that will reduce the amount of nitrogen and other pollutants entering nearby waterways.

 "Green infrastructure examples include rain gardens and planter boxes, green roofs, permeable pavement, rainwater harvesting, and bioswales [which are typically vegetated channels designed to concentrate and convey stormwater runoff] — teams can build off an existing idea or create a completely new concept," the council said in its announcement. Student teams can compete for grants of up to $2,500.

John Cameron, chair of the council, said in a statement: "The competition is a collaborative educational tool which engages our students about one of the most significant challenges we face on Long Island — protecting the quality of our surface and drinking water."

According to a council spokesman, the number of student proposals submitted have increased in recent years, for example going from six proposals in 2022, to 14 in 2023 to 21 in 2024. A panel of experts selects awardees.

The prize money will be awarded to the schools with winning designs, enabling the student teams to then carry out their project designs.

The deadline for submitting letters of interest to the challenge is Nov. 8 and should be sent to https://lirpc.org/water-quality-challenge/, where there is a link for submissions. 

The deadline for submitting final project proposals is Feb. 3, 2025 and awards are to be announced sometime in March or April, with award prizes to be presented sometime in May or June, the council said. 

In addition to West Hempstead Secondary School, other grant recipients from the 2024 challenge were Walt Whitman High School in the South Huntington School District, Sewanhaka Central High School, Elmont Memorial High School, and Island Trees Memorial Middle School.

Projects included eighth- and ninth-graders in Island Trees, who formed a SEEDS Club (Students Embrace Environmental Decisions and Solutions) and proposed planting a rain garden using water from a rooftop and runoff drains.

Sewanhaka students invented bioretention areas using fungi and plants, with planter boxes around a constructed wetland/pond.

Elmont students tested soil on school grounds and found the highest nitrogen levels at the softball field. Students then suggested adding vertical planter boxes along the field.

Walt Whitman High School students planned to add a filter in a downspout diverter to get rid of contaminants directly from the rooftops and collect water in a storage tank.